A MOTHER says she has been vindicated by an admission from health bosses that her son being prematurely discharged from hospital contributed to his death.

A MOTHER says she has been vindicated by an admission from health bosses that her son being prematurely discharged from hospital contributed to his death.

And lawyers representing Edith Blacklock say “serious lessons” must be learnt following the death of Martin, aged just 32.

Clinical negligence specialists at law firm Irwin Mitchell are fighting the case for Edith, a 56-year-old grandmother, whose son was wrongly discharged from the University Hospital of North Durham on December 3, 2009.

And solicitor Lindsey Henderson, who is representing Edith, secured an admission from County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust that the premature discharge led to a significant decline in his condition, from which he could not recover. In the letter health bosses admit: “It is accepted that, had the deceased remained in hospital from December 3, 2009, on the balance of probabilities, it is likely he would have survived.”

Now Edith, a cook, of Park House Gardens, Sherburn, Durham, said: “The last thing I promised my son was that I would get justice for him.

“He was home for three weeks in agony yet he had never ailed in his life before. I begged health professionals to get him back to hospital but my cries for help fell on deaf ears.”

Martin, a kitchen porter who lived with his parents, had been receiving in-patient treatment for ulcerative colitis, a serious bowel complaint, since November 30, 2009, and was still in agonising pain and barely able to walk as he left hospital three days later.

He was prescribed steroids but remained in agony while his condition deteriorated for almost three weeks – by the time he returned to hospital on December 23 he had suffered serious complications and it was too late to save him.

A series of emergency operations followed in early 2010, but he died on February 16 last year.

A Trust spokeswoman said: “The Trust is sorry that Mr Blacklock’s family feel let down by the care that Martin received and we continue to be in open discussions with Mr Blacklock’s family. However, as this is now the subject of a legal claim it would not be appropriate to comment.”

Send a story

Advertising Department

Print

The Chronicle is read by more adults than any other regional newspaper on sale in the area. With 170,115 average issue readers, this reach extends to 366,753 weekly readers – that’s over 1/4 of adults in the area!

The average time spent reading the Chronicle is 31 minutes; which shows the length of time that readers are engaging with the editorial and advertising content.

49,199* copies of the Chronicle are sold on average each day as it continues to be an integral part of the region.

*ABC Newcastle Chronicle 100% paid, Mon - Sat, JICREG, 1/10/2012

Online

Unique Users: 1.6m

Page Views: 10m

Audience figures from Omniture, monthly average (Jan - Jun 2014).

More than 1 in 3 ChronicleLive users have clicked through to an online advertisement, demonstrating that our users are responsive and receptive to Internet advertising messages.

ChronicleLive reaches an internet-savvy audience, with 84% of users having purchased products or services online in the past 12 months.

Download our rate cards for all the prices of our print and digital products.